Aspire Aquisition Adventure, 03 Ranger Edge

[zoomzoom]

Hi fellow enthusiasts! I, personally, am into subcompacts, but I have had rangers and explorers at my disposal since I started driving. I love them, they are great little trucks if properly maintained! I recently picked up and flat towed a Ford aspire using my mothers 2wd 03 Ranger Edge, a fellow enthusiast and friend went with me and picked up a Festiva the same day. I did enjoy the ride, it was a nice trip, but I have some questions about the 2wd ranger suspension I hope you can answer for me, but we'll get to that in a minute. For now, heres a short pictorial of the trip, copied from a post on another forum.





So, after a couple weeks of price haggling, a week of planning, and a day of awesomeness, I finally have a second aspire! Big thanks to my mom for letting me borrow her truck, and Saftey Guy, Karl, of ff.com without whom this would not have been possible! We went in on a "bulk buy" for 2 cars, one Festiva, one Aspire, from another ff.com member.

We departed my house in Marietta Ohio around the buttcrack of dawn right before the rooster would have crowed had I not shot it last week, for Akron, Ohio, about 130 miles and 2 hours 20 minutes away. We had some technical difficulties getting the tow bar hooked up, but with a little ingenuity we finally managed to make something work. The trip back took about 3 hours. Since I was flat towing an Aspire, and he was driving a questionable new car with a lifter that wants to fly out of the valve cover, we stayed around 55-65 the whole way back.


The little 2wd Ranger really suprised me, at first anything above 45-50 mph got a little squirley, but after we got down out of the heavy traffic 4 lane interstate highway coming out of Cleveland, I was seeing speeds up to 65mph and couldn't even tell there was anything behind me. I think the b6me long block, tools, and BP block/head and pieces in the bed may have helped also.

This aspire was in a lot rougher shape than described, there is no carpet, backseat, console, door panels, the back Windows are busted out, there is a massive hole in the roof, and somebody decided to cut a slit the quarterpanel for a reason unbenounced to myself. the worst part is the cancer, it definately won't be a long term driver, but hopefully I can run it for a couple months until my BP aspire is ready, then who knows, I'm thinking some 12" rims, tall skinny tires, and a 6-8" lift for a little mud action??! Who knows! After driving 130 miles I didn't want to leave empty handed.

So without further adeu, ...some pictars!


Me trying to rig up the tow bar, I removed the front end before anyone had a.chance to take a pic, it takes me a whole 5 minutes to get everything off, even the bumper cover.




Dragging out the extention cord to drill some holes in the bumper to hook up the tow bar. We had to go buy some longer bolts and ended up with 1/2"x 6" grade 8 coarse threaded bolts, which were a hair too long.




Had to chop the threads off one end of one of the bolts because it interfered with the tow bar pin.

[zoomzoom]

This is Karls new Festiva, he's naming it "Prettystiva" because it will clean up nicely. Other than a couple surface rusted parts in the engine bay, it just needs a bath and a new lifter.



Even has the stock rear cover in good shape with the strings still attached!



We drove to a place nearby to grab a bite to eat and do a final check before we head out. The car was following good, flat pulls are different, but they do work! Just tie the shifter so it doesn't pop into gear!




Stopped about 50 miles into the trip for a checkup.


Everything looked good!

[zoomzoom]

myself, Karl, and my boy Koda chilling before unhooking and unloading and saying our goodbyes.


Two of karls festivas, the new one prettystiva, and aquamutt

[zoomzoom]

So during the trip, I noticed the truck rides a lot nicer with a load than without. The rear suspension wants to break your back at every crack in the road, and the front is pretty stiff too. My mother doesn't use this truck for much, just daily driving, and I would like to make it more comfortable for her. Except a few scratches in the bed from a load of bricks, the truck is imaculate with 63k miles.

I was thinking some softer springs up front, and a shock absorber in the rear to eliminate most of the jarring over bumps. Im not really familiar with these suspensions, aside from doing general maintenance here and there, so I was wondering if you guys had any ideas of how to modify this truck to ride like a Cadillac and keep the same stock height/look.

[zoomzoom]

Ideas? Anyone?